Supermarket Chain Winn-Dixie to be Sold to Bi-Lo

The supermarket chain Winn-Dixie is being sold for $560 million to Bi-Lo LLC.  The combined company will have about 690 stores and 63,000 workers in eight states in the southern U.S. Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. will become a privately held subsidiary and its ticker will be removed from the Nasdaq. Each Winn-Dixie stockholder gets $9.50 per share in cash, a 75 percent premium to the Jacksonville, Fla. company’s Friday closing stock price.  Bi-Lo, based in Greenville, S.C., runs 207 supermarkets in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee.  Winn-Dixie runs about 480 grocery stores, including approximately 380 in-store pharmacies, in Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia and Mississippi. It has about 46,000 employees.  The companies said Monday that no store closings are expected and the name Winn-Dixie will remain.